The director of the Yangtze River Administration, Mr Tang Guanjun, and the director of Gansu province’s transport commission signed an agreement on 15 November to co-ordinate the development of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. Both sides also agreed to co-operate by sharing expertise and human resources.

Second to the Yangtze, the Yellow River has been a major west-east transport artery for centuries. Its 5,464km-long trunkline passes through Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces. The provincial governments have come together in recent years to develop the river as a modern shipping channel. The aim is to make shipping possible for 300dwt vessels in some of the river’s major sections. For the longer term, the target is to link the river with the sea, accommodating 300-500dwt vessels.